Turning Portugese...
Trip Start
Sep 15, 2008
1
57
122
Trip End
Jan 01, 2009
Lisbon,
Estremadura,
Portugal
Monday, January 26, 2009
We touched down in a cloudy Lisbon where the temperature was a bone chilling 13 Celsius, coming from a skin cooking 38 Celsius in Rio. Arriving in Lisbon, it was clear we were back in a first world country again (though some in the EU would disagree).
We found our hostel, Black and White, near downtown and checked-in. The hostel was really cool inside, had a good location, but we were sold on the fact it was the cheapest
Funky Mall in Lisbon
. First order of business was to find a camera, after spending our last week in Rio without. We didn't buy another one in Rio because a) we didn't want to get robbed twice and b) because electronics are very expensive in Brazil and we still have to make our insurance claim for reimbursement. The hostel receptionist, who happened to be from Calgary, directed us to the Baixa neighbourhood and 30mins later we were made whole again with another Canon SLR. We spent a few hours wandering the streets. That night we visited the supermarket and made some dinner in the hostel.
First impressions: Lisbon is very beautiful, with cute streets, cool buildings, and much cleaner than anywhere in South America. The city also has a great metro, making getting around easy. The Portuguese love their fish, salted, fried, baked, if it lives in the sea they'll eat it. A local specialty is a salted cod fish that we haven't gotten the nerve to try, primarily because it smells like death. The really nice part of Portugal is that it is very affordable for backpacking, cheaper than Brazil, Chile, and even Argentina. One day for lunch Arik had fish, a huge plate of mussels, and a bottle of wine for 4EUR.
Our second day in town it rained...no big deal as Lisbon has one of the largest aquariums in the world. Even though we are proud West Coast Canadians we have to admit the Lisbon aquarium kicks the Vancouver aquarium's butt, hands down (see pics)
Arik in front of the Aquarium
. The design is awesome, with a massive central tank the volume of 5 Olympic pools. Surrounding the main tank is 4 habitats from the Antarctic, Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. One factoid you may not know is that the sea otter in Vancouver is actually Portuguese, originally born in the Lisbon Aquarium. Sharks, sunfish, penguins, manta-rays, and barracuda were some of the other inhabitants. After the fish spotting we walked around the Expo 98 site, grabbed some lunch, and caught a bus across the 17km bridge, the longest in Europe, across the river to an outlet mall (to replace watches).
The night was spent over dinner in the hostel and chatting with the many characters staying there. We met some girls from Rio, one who is writing a book about life in the marvellous city, and they echoed the risk of living there. In fact they said it is best to make sure you always bring enough money with you for the muggers, to keep them happy...
Our third day in Lisbon was dedicated to history and culture. We visited the main landmarks in Belem. Then it was an hour at a pirate museum (turns out there was a lot about pirates we didn't know!) before walking to the Cultural Centre of Belem to see the Warhol collection. At the CCB we were delighted to hear entrance was free today, but sad to hear the Warhol's were gone... The photography section of the gallery was really cool. Our favourite piece was an image, by a Brazilian, made in dirt and then photographed, the detail is pretty amazing.
Day four in Lisbon we checked off the rest of the "must see" sights. A wheat-soda at the top of the Julia Elevator, walking the tight streets of ancient Alfama, and strolling the mountain top Castle of Saint George
Checking out the sharks
. We spent the evening in the hostel for dinner and chatting with guests from Germany, Toronto, and Alaska. On our final full day in Lisbon we took a trip north to the coastal town on Peniche, where one of Europe's best surf waves is located. Due to a huge storm no surfing was happening, but the storm watching and walking the beach was pretty amazing and a good break from the city.
That night, 12 hours before our flight to India we realized we had a problem...no visa's! We had read we needed them but assumed we could apply on arrival. Nope! Then we figured we could get some in the morning...Indian holiday. Nope!
What to do, what to do, we were a bit panicky until we decided to move our flight back a few weeks and head to Africa. It may appear like we are poor planners, but we prefer to see it as fate. We had thought about Morocco before but didn't want to overcomplicate the flight to India...fate intervened...instead of a flight to India we would be catching a train to Spain, then a ferry down to Africa...woo hoo!
